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CLEVELAND, OHIO, SATURDAY, MAT 28, 121.
THE
TOILER
PAGE 3.
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Entered as Second Class Matter, February 21, 1917, at the Post
Office at Cleveland, Ohio, under the Act of March 9, 1879.
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EDITORIAL PAGE OF THE TOILER
mmmmm
COMMUNIST TACTICS AND THE UNEMPLOYED.
There arrived at The Toiler office recently a letter the main
portions of which we are herewith reprinting for important
reasons. The letter is from comrade Kuby Herman, personal friend
of The Toiler Editor and ex-State Secretary of the former Socialist
Party of Washington.
There is embodied in this letter a question of tactics, com
munist tactics, which deserves elucidation. In that the letter deals
wtih a very grave workingclass problem, that of unemployment,
the necessity for a clear comprehension of the particular tactics to
be pursued in dealing with it constitute the reasons for our taking
this column in quoting the letter. The opening paragraph of the
letter reads :
"I was much interested in the symposium on unemployment which ap
peared in THE TOILER for April 9th and think it a splendid idea foi the
paper to gather together those reports from different parts of the country.
However, I have wondered if the reports from other parts of the country
are as inadequate and unjust as that which appeared from Washington.
If so, it stems to me that a few more details would add greatly to the
value of the reports. Actually, the manner in which the situation was
handled by the unemployed themselves, and by the organized labor move
ment, shows progress to a very hopeful degree."
The manner in which the organized labor movement of Everett
handled the! unemployment problem is told in the next tvo
paragraphs as follows:
"The situation was taken in hand by the Central Labor Council, which
appointed Committees to organize the unemployed, attend to relief work,
AND CONDUCT SYSTEMATIC STUDY OF THE SITUATION. Unem
ployed mass meetings were held regularly, twice each week; the organiza
tion took on a form crudely modeled after the soviet idea; relief work went
forward with dispatch and effectiveness, so that actual suffering was re
duced to a gratifying minimum. The farmers were appealed to for help, and,
through their Grange organization and as individuals, responded generously.
Farmers, themselves in deep water thru the industrial collapse which has
thrown hundreds into the' wage-worker class (also unemployed!) provided
potatoes, carrots, onions, apples, and even canned fruit, and .nilk and eggs
in lesser quantities. It is more than probable that the feeling of good fol
Inwship and fraternalism generated by the Farmer-Labor Party campaign
of the preceding summer and fall had much to do with creating this spirit
of helpfulness upon their part. The Everett Co-operative Society (Rochdale)
carried many needy families thru the winter, the stock-holders foregoing
the usual quarterly dividends and turning all profits back into the. storA
fund that this might be done. BEST OF ALL, the systematic .stud;)
economics was carried on under the efficient tutelage of an uncompromising
Marxist, as 'revolutionary' as any Communist could wish
"The Everett unemployed made a decidedly 'collective demand' for
work, and the Park Board of the little city scrabbled around and found
some insufficient, to be sure, but as much as could be expected from a
little burg like Everett. Quite a number of men were put to work, in alter
nating shifts, each shift working three days per week and receiving the
munificent sum of $10 for the three days. When one remembers the city's
limitations, and that the work was of an entirely unnecessary nature, this
doesn't seem so bad! The city also provided other little jobs of minor
character and importance. A tract of timber land, some few miles from
town, was given over to those of the unemployed who wished to cut wood
from it. Several availed themselves of this opportunity, and it undoubtedly
helped some."
It is with the above enunciated methods of handling an acute
unemployed problem that we wish to quarrel. As will be seen the
efforts of the Council lay along three distinct lines. First, im
mediate relief work, feeding the starving thru gratuitous gifts
from the farmers, themselves in terrible straits from inability to
sell their products on a profitable market. Second, demands upon
the city ; and third, certain educational work, meetings etc.
We will have to accept comrade Herman's statement that the
educational work was all that it should be and as "revolutionary"
as even communists could demand. But we think there is a preat
deal in the program as carried out that would prove nauseating
to many class conscious workers much less revolutionary than
"communists" are supposed to be. We certainly see little in the
program that any communist could accept as good tactics. With
the exception of the "collective" demands made upon the city for
relief (and the educational work carried on, which we have ac
cepted at face value) we find nothing at all revolutionary. In fact
we find that the work was of the yellowest variety possible. It is
just what might be expected from a summer flirtation of the
Farmer Labor Party with the Working Class.
What is an unemployment problem looked at frbm the view
point of the Communist? Comrade Herman seems to think a revo
lutionist should view it as a heavenly opportunity to erect soup
houses supplied by the unemployed workers and farmers from
their own scanty storesMvith a study class in economics in con
nection. Far from it. The tmmunist must regard every crisis in
capitalism as. an added opportunity to undermine and weaken the
capitalist claBs and its State. Instead of scouring the countryside
for gifts of carrots from the mortgaged and penniless farmers, the
capitalist State must be made to purchase those supplies from the
farmers at regular market prices and give them free to the work
ers. They must be made to pay unemployed benefits and regular
union rates of wages. In short, capitalism must be made to sup
port the workers instead of the workers and poor farmers gather
ing up their tiny hoards into a pile and dividing it up among them
selves leaving the capitalist ur .bligated to those he has exploited
and thrown out of the facW a.
Comrade Herman states that thru the efforts of the unemployed
farmers' gifts suffering was reduced to a "gratifying minimum".
T .
Doubtless it was gratifying to the capitalists of 'Everett who are
now slowly opening up then mills and preparing the same process
over again. 1
A period of unemployment such as is now prevalent must be
regarded by revolutionists as a supreme momenti of revolutionary
ACTIVITY. Not only must scientific economics bte taught in class
es and meetings but all action for relief must t ike the form of
demands upon the capitalist State. The capitalls ; State must be
made responsible. It must be made to find foul, clothing and
housing for the unemployed. Demands, demands i t is incapable of
granting must be made. The real purpose of cor lmunist activity
is NOT to find immediate relief for the unempWyed, not the co
operative effort described as taking place .it I iverett. We may
well leave such alleviating activities to the Sail ation Army and
other capitalistic agencies which support capitalii t robbery in this
manner. Communist activity should take the fowii of cultivation
of the elements of revolution; to create in the mass mind a desire
for control of the land and machinery of produ-
to obtain it at any cost. The working class must
stand that they and only they have a right to the
and they must be led away from this solicitation of alms from
other elements of the workers for this only strengthens the
capitalist class. Activities less revolutionary than these are only
palliatives which weaken labor, strengthen the robbers and poison
the minds of the workers.
At the time when graincries are filled, when cotton is being
disked under unharvested, when all fruit; and provisions necessary
to man abound in unlimited abundance, how criminally foolish are
such tactics as were carried on at Everett and elsewhere. And,
it must be added, how perverting and pernicious of true revolu
tionary tactics are such measures. How destroying of the revolu
tionary spirit and how satisfactory to the capitalist class when
the impoverished farmers and unemployed workers deal in such
a shallow manner with a problem so filled with revolutionary
possibilities.
The fact that the workers managed to secure some relief from
the city affords a significant rift in the cloud. 'Perhaps that suc
cess excuses other mistakes. May they recall it another time and
make their demands doubly effective, and carry on a real revolu
tionary activity in all respects.
llllllllliliiillilil
mm
THE FAKE OF 'LAW AND OR
DER' UNDER CAPITALISM.
By J. FRANKLIN.
ion and the will
made to under-
roducts of labor
Intellectual development and know
ledge, among the working-class, is
of course against the hogish com
fort of our capitalists.
In a society organized for brigand
age and loot of the working class,
the most important necessity is an
arrangement or special organization
that shall protect the brigands and
looters from the wrath of the workers.
To get hold of the fruit of the
labor of millions of working men,
women and children, the big hogs,
the pride of our Nation are ob
liged to employ an evergrowing ar
my of bruttish mercenaries, secret
agents and thugs.
mere are still too many among
us wage slaves, who are unable to
immagine any other system of so
ciety than the present one, where
the few useless people live in fabu
lous luxury, hoggish idleness, and
swollen pride, and the overwhelming
many, the useful workers in an al
most criminal poverty and destitu
tion in spite of all abundance and
wealth of the Nation.
It is those wretched working men,
women and children, who are intelec
tually so low that they cannot im
magine or grasp a Social Order
based on economic equality; it is
this unresponsive mass of workers
that insures the success of organized
brigands against all inroads which
tho class-conscious labor attempts
upon the entrenched power of the
capitalists.
This cattle-like stupidity of the
The Scope of Bolshe
vist Activity.
By JACK FRANK.
In No. 13 (March 5) on its front
page, the PRAVDA published "The
Appeal of the MOSCOW TRADE
UNION INTERNATIONAL to Amer
ican Workers."
At the head,, of this APPEAL in
an introductory article of about 120
words, from which I will cite the
following passages as the object of
my criticism:
" For the workers of the U. S.
of A. this Congress will be of special
significance for, today it iB practi
cally assured, that there will be re
presented their only economic re
volutionary organization,.... the I.
W. W. Many are of the oppinion ( ? )
that the I. W. W. are called upon to
play as important a role in the eco
nomic revolutionary movement of the
working-ciass, as the Bolsheviks do
on the political field "
This pretense, of having "MANY
OF THE OPINION" can not save
the person responsible for this in
troductory article for the blame for
all the harm done through this MIS
CONCEPTION OF BOLSHEVIKS'
ACTIVITY and its IMMAGINARY
LIMITS, and fields of action.
Any student of MARXIAN PHI
LOSOPHY any student of revolu
tionary history of the working class
knows, that the field of Bolsheviks'
Activity is ALL-EMBRACING, UNI
VERSAL. Revolutionary historj
teaches us beyond all doubt, that
wherever a revolutionary undertak
ing by the working class was in any
way limiited to only some particular
fields of action and was not ell-embracing,
it was bound to be a failure
and was a failure.
To persuade ourselves, we have
but to go once more over the re
cords of the historical activity of the
Communards, the Spartaean Revolt,
the seizure of industries by the Ita
lian Syndicalists They failed, be
cause they themselves had limits,
they were not all-embracing.
At these limits, the bourgeoisie
was able to gather its forces, re
organize, and launch Its disastruous
counter-attacks, which wiped out all
the benefit the workers wrested from
the capitalists, and only augmented
the gigantic sacrifices in killed and
mutilated thousands which the work
ers brought upon the altar of their
foolishness, thinking that their move
ment had to have limits.
Bolshevism has no limit, no partic
ular field of action. All fields fall
in its scope.
Like a rotary saw, lodged in the
heart of capitalist society, it is cut
ting it up in all directions. It doe
so through exnosure of the decent,
ivo and oonipiratory character of
the Capitalistic-Democratic institu
tlons, does so through the general
education of the working class: it
dots o by training the working
class in the practical ait of Class
warturo tnrough Boycotts, Strikes,
Demonstrations and armed insurrec
tion.
Any economic revolutionary work
ers' organization is revolutionary
only through its actions, and not by
"merely calling itself revolutionary."
That means that it has to benefit
by, and utilize as a weapon all the
revolutionary experience that has
been brought out and crystalized
during the last phases of the gen
eral class-war. It wilL have to change
its form of orgtt&jJWkm and tactics,
in accordance with this new revolu
tionary experience, the need of which
has been proven during the alter
nate failings and successes of the
recent onslaughts of the proletarian
masses against the machine of the
bourgeoisie, not inly in Soviet Rus
sia, but in Germany, Italy, England
and the U. S. of A. They all paid
dearly for their inexperience in Rus
sia, for the hesitancy of the masses
to support the Spartaean Revolt in
Germany, for the yielding to the
treacherous leaders of the Socialists
in Italy, Hungary and Poland.
There can be no duality in Bol
shevist activity, there can be no
splits, no division, no dissipation of
energy among class conscious work
ers! Bolsheviks on the political, I. W.
W. on the economic field of action?
A fine confusion in the ranks of
the working class!
To mean anything in revolutionary
economics, a workers' organization
must plunge itself into the general
fight for its revolutionary aims. The
propertied class that calls itself
"owners of factories, mines and the
land," have all the armed power to
protect their, loot, and will not give
it up without a fight, whether we
believe it or not. A fight is a poli
tical action for power!
Tho I. W. W. had all the test it
needed to recognise that the pos
sessing class does not contemplate
any peaceful transformation of capi
talism into an Industrial Common
wealth, or Communism, in other
words. They must have learned by
suffering!
Since the industrial nction-on-such-a-largc-scalo
us the I. W. W. contem
plate and most sinctrily aspire to...
is bound to arraign the armed bour
geois machine against the general-working-class,
it follows, that an m
dustrial action is industrial in char
acter only for so long at it organizes
and prepares the workers for a fight,
any important fight, and thnt the
moment the fight is actually launch
ed, it becomes a struggle for power....
a political action.
It Is armeil force that speaks to
the workers through the mouth of
the government telling us that,
whether we starve or not, the good
things of life we produced belong to
tho houses, the capitalists, who can
let these thine- rot as they please,
and starve us out as they please!
If the I. W. will not obey this
armed brute force that speaks to us
through the mouth of the govern
ment, than immediately they will
have to fight it. That means, the arm
ed foYce of tho capitalists will be
used against us! It is a struggle for
PRAVDA
Bohemian (Czechoslovak) Week
ly Organ of Uncompromising
Socialism.
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PRAVDA
1423 W. 19th Str., Chicago, 111.
power, and as such it is a political
action, whether the I. W. W. cherish
the name ECONOMIC or not. Why so
stubornly stick to a name that does
not at all define their action, but on
ly their aim?
THE ACTION being a clash be
tween the mighty awakening giant. .
the working class and against the
armed power of the big bosses
the fighting or battle-field of the
general working class is one and
indivisible, and not divided as the
Pravda tries to make believe.
Even in its preparatory stnre,
with its apparent industrial aspect,
there can be no division or separa
tion in its broad sense, but sinuply
subdivision or departmentalization
for the sake of higher efficiency, and
for no other purpose.
In the bitter reality, there is only
one front! All real organizations,
and all their resources must have
only one central direction.
That is the Third International!
To prepare the workers for run
ning and directing the industries
only, for that the workers can make
use of tho too many bourgeois
schools. The workers have not got
the industries yet, and therefore tho
paramount question is, to prepare the
workers for the fight, in which to
wrest the industries from the bour
geoisie, in spite of the armed ma
chine of their government.
The fight may begin in the shops,
in the mines, it may begin in
the armories or streets it makes
no difference where. But the fight
must be all-embracing, universal!
For this the workers must he pre
pared and ready by shops, by trades,
by industries, by military units, by
administrative units, by educational
units.
And all this without a renl divis
ion, simply as parts of one and the
samo machine all parts of which
move simultaneously forward against
the machine of the bourgeois
government, crushing it, and prevent
ing its reparation, through the dic
tatorship of tho workers, untli there
is no opposition no classes.
This is BOLSHEVIST FIELD OP
ACTIVITY! , I
THE IRISH PEOPLE
For Workers of Irish Birth
1 year $2.50.
262 West 23 Street
New York Cltf
working-class is the greatest asset
to the ruling capitalists. The capital
ists must cherish and perserve this
stupidity of the workers by all
means.
In proportion as the ruling cap
italist class will have to use force
and violence, in that proportion the
revolt of the workers will grow in
scope.
For this reason alone, the capital
ists ruling this country are extremely
careful in the open use of their
armed, uniformed mercenaries, be it
against strikers as a mass, be it
against the intelligent, devoted fight
ers for the cause of the workers,
that comprise the vanguard of the
struggle.
In the uniformed man, every work
er recognizes the mercenary, the
servant and protector of our ex
ploiters, the open enemy of usefull
labor. Therefore the capitalist rulers
resort more and more to the use of
the secret-service thug. The Plain
clothes Brute is especially more ad
vantageous for the service of assault
and violence of individual intelligent
workers.
In spite of enormous numbers cm
ployed in this service, the plain
clothes men are a great invisible
force, great invisible enemy of the
working-class.
They dress like workers, act
nice worners in tne shops, mines,
factories, public places, and play a
role in the Unions as the masters
in the Chambers of Commerce dic
tate.
But there are moments when they
cannot deceive the workers as a
whole, any longer. That is in the
Courts. The Courts must deliver the
goods.
Instinctively, the capitalists know
that the NEW GREAT ORDER
leaves no space for animalism, no
space for people who live on the
live-blood of their fellow-men, no
space for all those who live on the
toil of tubercular children working
in the cotton-mills and canneries. The
New Great Order has no space for
that? Damn the New Great Order!....
say the capitalists.
The courts of this capitalist gov
ernment are created to formally ap
prove and justify the action of these
brutish mercenaries, to justify force
and violence against all discontented,
intelligent wage slaves. Formal ap
proval and justification of wage
slavery imposed by violence, is their
main function. Only formally they
impose degrees of punishments, such
as Financial Combines and Cham
bers of Commerce wish and determine.
The capitalists do not tolerate any
sidestepping of this simple function
of the courts. When intelligent labor
becomes uncomfortable to them and
they decide to put them out of sight,
the court simply has to carry out
the order, that's all.
If there is a Magistrate, who wili
not take orders, his magistering will
soon be at end, and some Landis or
other Mountain of capitalism will be
found that is willing to perform the
service for a good reward. If all ef
forts fail, brute force may even go
the length of shooting the
Class-Wnr prisoner "while trying
to escape."
An example of plain clothes mens'
brutality is furnished by the case of
thrco workers in New York City,
who through their intellectual
strength and devotion to the cause
of the working class attracted at
tention of the Capitalist Brigands.
So they sent their uniformed and
plain clothes men after them.
A May Day Appeal to the workers
of America was found on them.
ANARCHY! High treason against
capitalism!. . . .
Magistrate Rosenblatt dismissed
the case us lacking all evidence Rnd
ridiculous. What? Magistrate not
taking orders? What is a Magistrate,
what is a court that does not take
orders from the capitalists? What
are its decisions? A HUGE JOKE?
That's all! They are and can be
nothing but a camouflage to deceive
the working class into the belief
that they have any say in the mat
ter, a camouflage as brazen as par
liamentary representation, calculated
to hide the fact, that force and
violence is ruling and nothing else.
Magistrate or no Magistrate, Court
Decision or no court-decision,
the three fine men acquitted by the
court, surrounded by their families,
were violently seized by the bulls,
handouffed, their wives and children
thrown against the walls screaming
in terror, their attorney shoved to a
corner, his clothing almost torn
from his body.
All this, done by the allmighty
bulls, the plain-clothes brutes, that
rule the U. S. of A.
It is a pity the workers from all
the factories, mines and railroads
cannot go to court and see for them
selves what is ruling the country, or
better said, what is ruling them.
And this fact comes to the ad
vantage of the capitalists. They do
not want the workers to know. As
long as the workers do not know,
they believe in capitalist-laws, de
mocracy ,and parliamentary repre
sentation. But if they saw, they would
understand, that parliaments, Na
tional and State-Congresses and Law
Courts if they disagree with the
Moncy-Bags are nice Places of Cheap
Talk, but devoid of all power, and
useless.
What rules, is the armed brute
force hired by the exploiters of labor,
brute force that must grow from
day to day, to cope - with the grow
ing impatiance of the Giant, the
Working Class!
The race for Power between Cap
ital and Labor is on!
Where do you stand, reader, broth
er? 0
A Patriotic Program
H. M. Daugherty, Attorney-General
of the United Stated, says: "The
country is settling down to a pat
riotic program."
What is the program? Watch the
papers.
"The United States Shipping Board
is determined to do everything it can
to fight the men."
That is the patriotic program.
Everybody is doing it. The Shipping
Board, the Steel Trust every pa
triotic organization in the country.
Capt. Paul Foley, director of opera
tion of the shipping board, held a
conference with more than 80 steam
ship representatives, for the pur
pose of drawing up a general policy
of opposition to the strike. That la
the patriotic program.
Conferences with the bosses against
the workers: that is the patriotic
program.
Issuing injunctions against strik
ers, sending strikers to prison,
shooting them: that is the patriotic
program.
Never forget the program. And
don't bother writing to your con
gressmen; speak to your fellow
workers.
Make them think about it. Make
them feel it. Wake them up!
Jewish Workers subscribe for
THE PROLETARIAN
A JEWISH SEMI-MONTHLY
devoted to the needs of the
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America.
Prico per year delivered by
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THE PROLETARIAN
208 E. 12 St., New York City
in
Stedman's Red Rairi W
(ON THE COMMUNISTS)
T By Robert Minor
JH The story of tho perfidy of the Socialist Party in attempting to
take the House of the MasweN awnv from ita owners, the Communists
jll of Detroit, while they were imprisoned by former Attorney General
Palmer.
0 This pamphlet reveals the reactionary and traitorous character
or the present Socialist Party and serve to enlighten all workera
who still retain some respect and reverence for what at one time
I
rniirnuiinli.il in.ir ift.nl ,( m rlnavrnHmn. 1 -1 1 i j A
Head it, circulate it especially among Socialist Party members.
71 You will he contributing to the knowledge of the workers upon a
J vital problem. The pamphlet is taken from the official Court records.
1
I
1 copy 10c 10 copies or more 6c each.
ORDER OF THR TOILER.